Andrew Jackson

Andrew Johnson was born on December 29th, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He stayed in Raleigh and grew up there with parents, Mary and Jacob Johnson. He had one brother, named William. Although he became the 17th president of the United States, Johnson never went to school. He got his training in an apprenticeship and taught himself how to read through books frequent customers would give to him. A few years after he got his internship, Andrew Johnson and few of his friends were throwing rocks at a tradesman’s house just to cause a bit of trouble. When the tradesman threatened to call the police, Andrew Johnson fled to Carthage, North Carolina, which was sixty miles from Raleigh.

He worked as a tailor, which was a skill that his mother had taught him and William. When his family moved to Tennessee, there was no employment available for them, so he made their home into a tailoring shop. Andrew Johnson eventually met Eliza McCardle and the two got married on May 17th, 1827. Eliza was more educated than he was and she helped to improve his reading and writing skills. She would read to him while he worked and soon their home was a place of political debates. Because of this and because of his wife’s encouragement, Johnson threw himself into politics.

Before becoming president, Andrew Johnson was a mayor, a congressman, a Senator, and the Governor of Tennessee. He made it into the House of Representatives and won four following elections to stay in.

Andrew Johnson was not elected a president, but he was the next in line for office. Since he did not run for office, he never lost a presidential election previous to being in office. Johnson was Abraham Lincoln’s vice president. Lincoln defeated General George McClellan in the 1864 election. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by twenty-six year old John Wilkes Booth, an actor in the area, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the President. In March of 1865, Johnson officially became the 17th president. Because he was the replacement for Lincoln,